What we are building
Mamela asks a new mother how she and her baby are every day, on any phone, and gets a real person to her when an answer shows something is wrong.
Phase one of a longer arc. Remote postnatal follow-up for South African public sector users, from the day of birth to twelve weeks. Not telemedicine yet: there are no consultations until phase two.
Who answers
The mother
- Four to six taps a day, by SMS, USSD, WhatsApp or app
- In English, isiXhosa or Afrikaans, and every question can be read aloud
- Body, feeding, baby, one feeling question, then "anything else?"
- Questions change with her birth, feeding, blood pressure, phone, and whether her baby is home, in hospital or has died
- She decides who sees her answers, and can switch sharing off in one tap
She gets: reassurance with a reason, a one-minute card, or a person.
In the middle
One check-in engine, one record
Every answer resolves to exactly one of three outcomes. The trees are written out in the daily experience specification.
Reassure"This is normal on day 3, because..."
CardA practical instruction, such as salt water washing
PersonImmediate, same day or within 24 hours, with a fallback
The record builds up day by day and replaces the paper card for this period. Health workers read it as trends, not entries.
Who responds
The health worker
- An alert with her exact answer, in her words and in English, the last three days, and how to reach her
- Accepts it, tells her who and when, and closes it only with an outcome
- A one-minute summary at six days and six weeks, if she consents
Who helps
The co-carer
- Invited by her: a partner, co-parent, family member or friend, of any gender
- One practical thing to do today, and a check-in of their own
- Sees her status only at the level she allows. Their worry routes support to them, never to her
Rules that never bend
- No answer ends on a screen: every red answer has an urgency, a named responder and a fallback
- No score is shown to her: ever
- Mood screening only runs when a person is free to respond: self-harm items never sit in a daily check-in
- The co-carer role cannot become surveillance: their concern never alerts her or enters her record
- No assumptions: not a private phone, not a male partner, not marriage, not a live healthy baby
How often she is asked
| When | Mother | Co-carer | Health worker |
|---|---|---|---|
| D1 to D7 | Daily, 4 to 6 taps | Every second day | Alerts only |
| D8 to D14 | Every second day | Twice | Alerts, six-day visit |
| Wk 3 to 6 | Twice weekly, EPDS at wk 2 and 6 | Weekly | Six-week summary |
| Wk 7 to 12 | Weekly | Fortnightly | Alerts only |
Inclusive design, built in
- Language: English, isiXhosa and Afrikaans, switchable any time, with read-aloud on every question and card
- Navigation: one task per screen, with Back, "Talk to someone" and Quick exit always visible
- One-handed: main actions sit at the bottom of the screen, touch targets at least 44 points
- Seeing: text size up to 150%, WCAG 2.2 AA contrast, light and dark themes that follow the phone, with an override
- Meaning: colour never works alone, every urgency has a word and a symbol
- Connection: with no data, answers are saved and sent on reconnect, and an urgent answer still shows 10177
- Privacy: nothing sensitive in notifications, optional PIN, and a quick exit
Pre-demo test
- Low-end Android on 3G
- Font scale at maximum: use Largest in the mother's Privacy screen
- Greyscale on: urgency still reads from the words and symbols
- Screen reader on: TalkBack and VoiceOver
- Aeroplane mode mid-flow: use the data connection control beside the mother's phone
Where this sits in the roadmap
Phase 1, nowAfter-birth productCheck-ins, escalation, learning cards, co-carer. This prototype.
Phase 2, with fundingConsultations and medicinesPaid clinicians, Vula referrals, scripts collected near home.
Phase 3The rest of the arcDuring pregnancy (kick counts), then before pregnancy.
The demo journey
- Thandi, day 5 after a caesarean, gets her check-in by SMS
- She reports yellow discharge from the cut
- A same-day alert reaches Sister Dlamini with the last three days of answers
- The nurse accepts, and Thandi is told who will phone her and by when
- Ayanda, her partner, gets one practical thing to do today
Still open, and visible in the prototype
- Who answers a flag overnight: the fallback cannot be a queue
- "Go now" without a taxi fare: the wording is provisional until we know what we can offer
- Co-carer answers on her behalf: recorded as theirs and marked in the alert, pending a decision
- Translations: isiXhosa and Afrikaans are drafts until a first-language speaker has reviewed and back-translated them
- Which inherited conditions the baby flags cover: not built yet
- Clinical sign-off: every threshold here is a specification, not a protocol